Monday, July 28, 2014

I have been watching Google's Android closely for developments related to enterprise use for some time. Google's Android now dominates smartphone sales to consumers, but rampant security flaws have prevented enterprises from adopting it. In this article, my friend and mobility expert Dave Akka (Twitter @davidakka) shares his thoughts and insights on the latest developments in Android.

Despite its popularity in the consumer world, Android hasn’t
been adopted as enthusiastically by enterprises as iOS, and while there are several reasons for this the
biggest is security. Interestingly, Android head, Sundar Pichai, announced
at Google I/O that the next version of Android would include Samsung’s Knox
security container for all devices, not just those made by Samsung. This
means Google has convinced Samsung to give up one of its key differentiators,
but more on that later.

Although Knox has been marketed as making Android safe for
work, analysts
have queried whether it is able to withstand the current volume of
security risks, especially with hackers using 64-bit
root kits.

With the vast majority of mobile malware targeting
Android, and Google’s official line being that Android is designed for freedom
rather than security, these fears may not be laid to rest anytime soon.

In addition to the security concerns which include malware-ridden and entirely fake apps on the Google Play app store, the lack of
Office for Android has been seen as an issue for Android enterprise
adoption. Although there still isn’t a version of Office for Android as
there is for iOS, it will be possible to edit native Office documents in Google
Docs, which may be good enough for many users.

On the bright side, some of the new features such as
allowing enterprise IT to bulk purchase apps and automatically deploy them
should be very useful, as is the new Google Drive For Work programme which
offers encryption, improved admin controls, auditability and unlimited storage.

There are also concerns for Android L in that the major
improvements in battery life, speed and security doesn't stand out from the previous KitKat version, and the fact that Samsung Knox hasn’t
yet affected enterprise mobility marketshare (as
measured by activations of the Good software), and Samsung still
declines to specify how many paid customers Knox has won.

While iOS has shown that enterprise mobility management
isn’t the most critical factor in a BYOD world, it seems that Android phones
can be sufficiently difficult to manage that they actively deter IT
departments. One feature that
could become a differentiator is a dual-persona model that allows users to
separate work and personal data, answering one of the big challenges of mobile
device management.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE…

One of Google’s biggest challenges in replicating the
success of iOS in both the consumer and enterprise mobility markets is that it
cannot offer a clear choice of device for each use case because it has to deal
with a wide range of OEMs. This task cannot be made any easier by the
fact that of the OEMs, only Samsung appears to be profitable and they appear
rather keen to rock the boat.

Samsung has been developing its own mobile OS, Tizen for
some time and started selling smart watches running the OS earlier this
year. The Tizen OS allows Samsung to create a very similar user
experience to its Android phones but replacing Google services with Samsung
ones, thus depriving Google of user data and advertising revenue. It’s no
secret that Google and Samsung both seemed to be trying to hedge against the
other, with Google’s announcement of Android Silver to provide market
development funds to OEMs that follow a more stringent set of user interface
and hardware rules.

The biggest surprise from Google I/O may well be that
Google is getting its house in order. I can only imagine that Samsung would not
have agreed to provide Knox to other OEMs unless it was reassured about the
future of the relationship, or it felt enough of a threat to step into line.

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.